Both title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa have received penalties during the Japanese Grand Prix following incidents at the start of the race. Hamilton had made a move on Massa up the inside at Turn Ten, but Massa couldn’t slow down in time and took to the grass. When the Brazilian returned to track he made contact with the McLaren and Hamilton spun through 180 degrees. For this, Massa received a drive-thru penalty.
The incident that got Hamilton into trouble happened at the start of the race when Kimi Raikkonen managed to get ahead off the line. As the pair headed into Turn One, Hamilton attempted to re-pass the Ferrari, but ended up locking his tyres and forced Raikkonen out wide and onto the run-off area. Raikkonen lost a lot of places as he collected his car back together around the outside of the corner, and Hamilton was given a drive-thru penalty as punishment.
Were the penalties fair? Have your say in the comments below.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:19am
I think that the Hamilton penalty is interesting as there are not many precedents that spring to mind from first corner incidents. I suppose what could be argued is that he entered the corner behind Raikkonen and then emerged ahead of him after having left the racetrack (we can just see this at 0:12 in the video above). I guess given what has gone before this season that entitles him to a penalty?
What is more interesting I think is that once he had had a poor getaway the next few seconds/minutes were the biggest test of Hamilton’s bottle since the climax to last season. Interesting trait.
October 12th, 2008 at 5:04pm
Lewis’s penalty is a joke. You have to ask why Massa did not try to avoid a collision after he put four wheels off the track. I forgot since Spa you are not allowed to leave the track to avoid a collision.
October 12th, 2008 at 5:29pm
Like what Lewis said ” its the name of the game”, only someone returning from outer space will think that the game is not fixed for Ferrari. the only positive i can get from this season is when Bam Bam says I was 2008 WDC people will just laugh at him and say “yeah right”